1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for teaching or improving the swinging of a sports implement, and more particularly, to an apparatus for teaching or refining the skill of swinging a golf club.
2. Background Art
The art is replete with devices and techniques for improving the swinging of a golf club. These prior art devices and techniques fail to take into account, however, that the golf swing is a composite of hundreds of properly timed body movements, instead isolating and emphasizing certain aspects to the exclusion of others. Such emphasis on isolated aspects of the swinging of the golf club while ignoring others is as likely to inhibit a better swing as it is to promote it.
For example, a technique which focuses exclusively on stance while ignoring other factors such as balance, hand position, hip turn, shoulder turn, wrist break, leg movement, leg drive, and arm extension cannot promote a superior overall swing.
Another complicating factor is the tendency of the golfer to mistakenly associate force rather than velocity with distance. It is this perception which leads the golfer to us a golf club in a striking manner rather than in the swinging manner for which it was designed.
It is thus desirable to provide a golf training apparatus in which the user swinging a club member can instantly feel whether the proper coordination of all the above-stated aspects has been achieved. In the same vein, it is desirable that the apparatus be "unforgiving", that is, that it if proper coordination is not achieved, the feel and mechanics of the club swing should be dramatically different from what is experienced when the swing is within an optimal range.
One effort in this direction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,980 to Silberman. Silberman discloses a golf swing training device that uses a completely flexible rope for the shaft. The idea behind the invention of Silberman is that unless the club device is swung properly, it can hardly be swung at all, that is, the shaft does not "help" the golfer position the head, and the head must instead be forced into travelling the desired arc by proper timing alone. While Silberman is a step in the right direction, the club implement described therein is too unforgiving, and, in fact, is so far divorced from the characteristics of a regulation golf club that it may be difficult to transfer the "feel" of properly swinging the Silberman implement to the "feel" of properly swinging a regulation golf club.
In addition to feel, it is also desirable to give the person desiring to learn or play better golf an improved visual indication of club head path as the club head traverses the region where a ball is struck during play. In this regard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,029 to Worrell discloses a golf practice apparatus that uses a luminescent pattern on a golf practice surface. Worrell, however, contains no appreciation of the possible advantages of applying such concepts to a practice implement having a shaft with special mechanical characteristics.